Thursday, August 10, 2017

We’ve all heard it said that
“violence begets violence.” As Martin
Luther King, Jr. put it:

“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper
darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out
darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do
that.”

The civil rights leader said that
love can drive out hate. It could also
be said that love begets love. If love
can have the duel effect of driving out hate and begetting more love, then it
seems to me that the answer to the world’s problems is to propagate love. That sounds kind of simplistic but how could
it not work?

What are the major problems that
plague our world? War, Poverty, Hunger,
Disease, Crime, Ignorance. So, let’s say we could wipe out war and use the
resources that have been going into it, to eradicate the other major
problems. Would that solve
everything? I doubt it; unless we could
also drive out greed and hatred, both of which are the by-product of fear.

Albert Einstein said, “Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed.” There may be enough money in the world to
wipe out stupidity in the form of illiteracy, but I don’t think it could get
rid of fear and greed. Fear, greed and
hate are products of the darkness. Only
light and love can drive them out.

But is there enough love in this
world to counteract all the fear, greed and hate? It seems to me that there is, but we’re not
propagating it. We’re so wrapped up in,
and focused on, the major problems, which are fed by fear, greed and hate, that
we don’t give Love and Light the attention they need and deserve.

What would happen if people
decided to make spreading love the main purpose of their lives? What if only a fraction of the population
made that commitment and every day when they woke up they would ask themselves,
‘What can I do to spread love today?’ Would that love beget more love and more
love and more love? Or, is this just
the notion of a bleeding heart, head-in-the-clouds, overage hippy liberal? NO!
It’s the core message of all the religions and the greatest prophets in
history. Jesus Christ put it very
simply, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another.”

Saturday, March 11, 2017

The only way this world is going to survive is if
we realize that we are one, inter-related world. We have the internet that
allows us to communicate with anyone in the world… and wiki-leaks to make sure
that there are no secrets. The pollution
created in one city, or one nation, affects the air and the climate of every
person on earth. And we have nuclear
weapons that can reach and destroy every corner of the planet. Isolationism
is not an option. So those who
are afraid that if we let the “other” in…into our country, into our hearts,
into our legislative decisions, you might lose one of your 50” TVs, get over it.
We are one world, like it or not and we’re not going to go back to the way
things were. The only way humankind is
going to go backwards is if we blow each other to smithereens. And then there
might not be anyone left.

I’m not saying that
we should be one nation with one world leader, not at all. We can remain separate nations, people with
distinct cultures and religious practices.
But we, the people, have to elect leaders who realize that we are one,
small, inter-related world and the decisions they make must take that into consideration. Business
leaders, maybe even more so, must recognize the connectivity between their
decisions and the well-being of, not just their shareholders, but everyone even
remotely influenced by those decisions.

I don’t deny that there is suffering in this country. Of course there is, and we have to look at
how we can alleviate that suffering, with long-term measures. Maybe it would be nice for the coal miners if
they could have their jobs back rather than having to go through job-retraining
but that’s not what this country, or the world, needs. We need alternative sources of energy that
aren’t going to ravage our water supplies and pollute the air. There are certainly sources of revenue in
this country that can finance long-term solutions to the industrial and
environmental problems we are facing.
Just one of those billionaires who now occupy the Whitehouse could
probably make a huge contribution to putting people back to work while at the
same time helping to clean up the environment. But they’d have to stop acting
like ignorant fools and denying what is obvious to the rest of the world.

We’re all going to have to
learn to think, feel and act globally because this is the world we have
made. Self-centered indifference and
militaristic aggression will not make our lives better, will only serve to fuel
hatred, endless war and acts of terrorism. Unless we
learn to respect each other; unless we have compassion for ALL our fellow men,
women and children; unless we recognize that we are all one family and our
neighbor’s needs are just as important as our own, WE WILL NOT SURVIVE.